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| The Beginning | |||||
| Gem Twist was born in 1979. His dam was Coldly Noble, a Thoroughbred racehorse given to the Chapot family by Mrs. Miles Valentine. His sire was Frank Chapot's outstanding partner Good Twist, who had won 21 international classes in the United States and Europe during the 1960's. |  Good Twist and Frank Chapot |
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| Frank sold Gem to Michael Golden in 1981. Michael rode his first horse for pleasure and did some jumping, but, as Gem matured, he made it known that he was going to be a handful. If he didn't like what his rider was doing, he'd spook, leap straight up in the air, or spin unexpectedly. Gem soon returned to Frank's Chado Farm in Neshanic Station, New Jersey, with Frank taking on the ride. "He jumped schooling fences as if they were four and five feet, and he really cracked his back," Michael recalls. In late 1984, Greg Best, then a relatively unknown 19-year-old kid who was training with Frank, began to ride the five-year-old. By then, although everyone could tell that the horse was something special, they couldn't have imagined just how far he'd go. "You always dream about things like that," Frank Chapot said. "But you have to play it one day at a time. | |||||
| No Looking Back | |||||
 Gem Twist and Greg Best in Seoul |
Gem and Greg learned together. After earning some preliminary victories and a gold medal at the 1985 North American Young Riders' Championships, they moved up to the intermediate division in '86. Frank kept the pair in that division for a full year to let Greg figure out how to package Gem's stride without stirring up his feisty nature. | ||||
| Once the pair entered the grand-prix ranks in early 1987, there was no looking back. At the Grandprix of Tampa in March, Gem and Greg had their first grand-prix victory. A week later, at the Grandprix of Florida, they had their second. Six months later, the United States Equestrian Team selected them for the Pan American Games, and they helped bring home a team silver medal. The next year they won the team and individual silver medals at the Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea. |  Gem Twist and Greg Best in Seoul |
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| His international fame increased at the World Equestrian Games in 1990, where he earned the title "World's Best Horse." At the
event he had the fewest faults - 4.38 - out of 78 horses in the event's five preliminary rounds. He also had the fewest faults - four - in the final four rounds with four different riders. |
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| The fairy tale Gem and Greg had created ended in 1992. An unlucky slip during the approach to an oxer at the American Gold Cup caused Gem to crash through the jump, driving Greg into the ground and smashing his left shoulder. While Gem was unharmed, the injury put Greg out of commission for several months. | |||||
| New Rider, Same Horse | |||||
 Gem Twist and Leslie Howard |
With Greg unable to ride, Leslie Howard, an accomplished grand-prix rider who had worked with both Frank and Greg, seemed a good choice to take over. Leslie's instant success with Gem, winning the 1993 Budweiser/AGA Championship, enabled Gem to clinch yet another Horse of the Year title. With the win, Gem set a record as the only horse to earn the honor three times (he had previously won with Greg in '87 and '89) - a record that still stands. | ||||
| Following Frank's characteristically light show schedule for the horse, Leslie and Gem consistently won throughout the next year and then qualified for the World Equestrian Games in 1994. While at The Hague in The Netherlands, however, Gem developed an infection in his suspensory that disqualified him from the championships and put him out of competition for almost a year. | |||||
| A Friendship Grows | |||||
| While Gem was recuperating at Chado Farm, Laura Chapot spent hours each day massaging his muscles and soaking his legs in a whirlpool. Struggling to keep his enthusiasm in check, she took him on 30-minute walks twice a day to build up his muscles. Unlike the more businesslike relationships he had with Greg and Leslie, Gem found a friend in Laura. | |||||
| When Gem was ready to go back to the show ring in 1995, Greg had moved to New Zealand and Leslie had other riding commitments, Laura was chosen for the job. While the decision to let Laura, who at that time had then never ridden at the grand-prix level, riding such a seasoned veteran in the show ring surprised many people, it made perfect sense to those close to the situation. | |||||
| In Gem and Laura's second grand prix together, the $100,000 Autumn Classic in Port Jervis, New York, Laura and Gem won, proving their chemistry. That win, along with several other placings, put Laura at the top of the standings and awarded her the 1995 AGA Rookie of the Year title. During the Florida circuit the following year, Laura and Gem dominated the few classes they entered and won the $100,000 AGA Championship as well as the $50,000 Grandprix of Florida. The win in the AGA Championship would mark the third win in that class for Gem, each time with a different rider, a feat that may not be equaled anytime soon. |  Gem Twist and Laura Chapot |
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| Time to Retire | |||||
 Gem Twist's Retirement Ceremony at the Gold Cup |
"Frank told me 15 years ago that someday Gem's going to tell us that he's done," Michael recalls. That time came at the beginning of the Palm Beach circuit when they tested Gem in one class, not necessarily to see how he would jump but rather to test his characteristic enthusiasm. | ||||
| To honor Gem's career and allow his many fans to say goodbye, the Chapots took him to several top shows, from the Budweiser American Invitational in Tampa, Florida, in April 1997 to the Cosequin American Gold Cup in Devon, Pennsylvania, in September 1997. The final retirement ceremony for the regal horse whose favorite treat is red licorice was at the National Horse Show in New York's Madison Square Garden on November 1, 1997. |  Gem Twist's Retirement Ceremony at the Gold Cup |
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| Gem was retired at the Chapot's Chado Farms in Neshanic Station, NJ. And he spent his winters with them in West Palm Beach. Gem died on November 18, 2006 at the age of 27
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